So maybe it's fitting that one of the mildest winters in memory is being followed by a storm that's expected to dump several inches of snow today on higher elevations of states from West Virginia up into New York.

Forecasters are warning that because the warm weather of recent weeks has led many trees in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic to bud early and start putting out leaves, any accumulation of wet, heavy snow on branches could cause many to break — bringing power lines down with them.